The eighth edition of Chiang Mai Design Week, a nine-day cultural festival that wrapped up last week, was a manifesto of the melting pot that is this northern province. At an out-of-use warehouse in Chang Moi, a group of local artists who took part in a homecoming project exhibited objects from their neighbourhoods in the style of Renaissance curiosity. Here, Achariyar Rojanapirom and Ratthee Phaisanchotsiri curated personal items from their cupboard, including a bowl of stir-fried salted chilli from a nam ngiao shop in the old town, to show how they remain contemporary.
For Chakrit Pichyangkul, executive director of the Creative Economy Agency (CEA), Chiang Mai Design Week was not a conservation of local heritage, but "a platform for innovating cultural assets for commercial viability". Last year, the event attracted more than 130,000 visitors, generating around 485 million baht. However, it was not cultural commodification. In fact, its decentralising effort has gone from strength to strength and has become a celebration of local artists breaking new ground.
